Although Canada and the United States share many similarities, they are still distinct countries with their own rules and systems. Linna discovered this firsthand as she ventured into U.S. real estate. She quickly realized that mortgage options were slightly different, she needed to figure out how to set up a business in the U.S., and she had to build a network in a new market while living outside the country. During her search for solutions, Linna came across Waltz. It turned out to be the perfect end-to-end solution for her situation.
Linna is an experienced investor who began investing in 2006. Linna and her husband turned their primary residence into a rental property after moving to another home– this is called house hacking.
Upon seeing the power of real estate, Linna leveraged equity from her first property and snowballed it into a portfolio in the Vancouver, British Columbia market.
After several years working and investing on the side, Linna decided to shift her priority to investing in real estate full-time as her business. Now, she’s self-described as “work optional” and is excited to pursue her passion.
When looking for the right market to invest in, sometimes you just need to follow the money.
After hearing about Elon Musk’s decision to move SpaceX operations to Brownsville, Texas, she did her research and quickly saw the potential of this growing market. With a booming aerospace and tech presence, she anticipated an increase in housing demand.
She zeroed in on a brand-new duplex located in Brownsville. Each unit featured a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom layout, with about 1,200 square feet per unit. This perfectly suited her buy-and-hold strategy.
Linna loves multi-family properties for the security they offer. With a duplex, she gets the benefit of multiple streams of income under one roof. Even if one unit were to sit vacant, she'd still have rental income from the other side, a benefit she couldn’t count on with a single-family property.
Knowing that this property checked all the boxes for her buying criteria, she decided to make an offer on this Texas duplex. All that was left to do was secure financing.
Once Linna made her decision to invest in Brownsville, she began researching other outstanding questions she had. These mostly had to do with the logistics of purchasing a property in another country.
As an experienced investor, Linna knew there would be challenges ahead. For her, it wasn’t a matter of what those challenges would be, but rather how to address them effectively. Linna identified these as her main challenges:
Linna began looking for answers to her questions on how to overcome the roadblocks she faced. The solution came as she explored BiggerPockets–a popular real estate investing resource. Only, it wasn’t a blog post she read, it was a company that she found.
Linna recalls “when I found Waltz, I was like ‘is this real?’ One company that does more than just lending felt hard to imagine.” It wasn’t her imagination playing tricks, though!
While exploring Waltz’s website, Linna quickly realized that she could resolve most of her pain points with one resource. She stated that “Waltz is an end-to-end provider. Everything from creating an LLC to getting a competitive mortgage can be done on one platform.”
In just 21 days, Linna was able to close on her new investment property. She listed these as the top three reasons for her fantastic experience with Waltz:
Linna is confident in her ability to expand her rental portfolio in Texas now that she has built a strong relationship with Waltz. With her entity set up and a lender she can count on, she knows she has the support needed to scale quickly. As she explores new properties, Linna is ready to seize the right opportunities, knowing Waltz will be there to help her every step of the way.
